World’s First eSports Congress Convening on September 21 in Valencia

World’s First eSports Congress Convening on September 21 in Valencia

DreamHack and Twitch invite video game industry luminaries to discuss the future of eSports

Valencia, Spain – September 6, 2012 - Valencia eSports Congress is hosting a one day event with video game industry leaders to discuss eSports development, media opportunities, and the rise of live streaming. DreamHack is organizing this landmark event while Twitch is sponsoring it and overseeing the streaming.

“DreamHack has a track record of working with all types of professional gaming leagues including ESL, CPL and will continue to do so in the future,” said Robert Ohlén, CEO of DreamHack. “Valencia eSports Congress will be a great way to bring more awareness to eSports and meet each other in real life.”

To bring awareness to the burgeoning eSports industry, DreamHack is partnering with Twitch, the leader in live online video game broadcasting.

"eSports has arrived as a major force in the video game and entertainment industries," said Kevin Lin, COO of Twitch. "There is a need for the entire eSports ecosystem to get together to discuss a host of pressing issues on the business side of the equation including advertising, infrastructure, competitive standards, video content and delivery and more. We're proud to be a part of it."

All panels will be moderated by industry veteran and renowned host and caster personality Paul ‘Redeye’ Chaloner. Some of the industry representatives include:

• Alex Garfield - Team EG
• Alex Lim - IeSF
• Alexander Kokhanovskyy - Na’Vi
• David Ting - IPL
• Göran Hellgren - Telia Sonera
• Ilja Rotelli - Blizzard
• Kevin Lin - Twitch
• Matthieu Dallon - ESWC
• Michael O’Dell - Team Dignitas
• Ralf Reichert - ESL
• Robert Ohlén – DreamHack
• Russell Pfister - NASL
• Sam Matthews - Fnatic
• Simon Whitcombe - CBS Interactive
• Sundance DiGiovanni - Major League Gaming
• Tomas Hermansson – DreamHack
• Zvetan Dragulev - Own3d.TV

Team managers, event organizers and journalists are encouraged to apply to participate in the event. Interested parties should send an abbreviated resume and an explanation of why they should be part of the Congress using the contact form provided on our web site. We also have 250 seats in the Auditorium where you can attend to see the panel’s live. Tickets are currently available while supply lasts.

For more information about tickets and partnerships, visit: www.valenciaesportscongress.com.

About Twitch

Twitch (formerly TwitchTV) is the world’s leading video game broadcasting network where more than 20 million gamers gather every month to watch and interact around the games they love. Twitch’s proprietary video delivery platform and infrastructure form the backbone of a distribution network for leading video game broadcasters including pro players, tournaments, leagues, developers and gaming media organizations. Twitch is leading a revolution in gaming culture, turning gameplay into an immersive entertainment media experience. Learn more at http://twitch.tv.

About DreamHack

DreamHack is the World's Largest Computer Festival. DreamHack's roots and core is the LAN party, with the major events DreamHack Summer and Winter, where participants bring their own computers and connect to the Internet in a large local area network which basically BECOMES the Internet by sheer scale. DreamHack is also Sweden's first consumer-oriented trade show / event / festival for computer games, game consoles and computers. The events are a platform for tournaments in eSports, knowledge and creative competitions, concerts by famous music artists, lectures by game developers and much more. Learn more at http://www.dreamhack.se

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Contact: Chase Access Communications for Twitch 415-810-0995 chase@accesspr.com

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com

Street Fighter edition of Monopoly revealed

In the relatively recent past we've gotten iterations of Monopoly based on World of Warcraft and Nintendo and now Monopoly's influence is being stretched ever further into the gaming industry as a Street Fighter edition has been announced.

You can take a look at the entire game board here which has properties jointly based on characters and the stages they inspire. The pieces - which are really 3/4 of the point of playing Monopoly - will be Chun Li's bracelet, Vega' mask, a hadouken fireball, Bison, Ryu, and Zangief's shorts. We were kind of hoping for Zangief's thigh hair, but whatever.

This iteration of the old-as-dirt board game will cost $39.99. No word on whether or not this version of Monopoly will fix the painfully boring process of playing Monopoly. 

Source : gamesradar[dot]com

Marvel Heroes MMO closed beta coming, trailer launched

It's a small wonder that the gaming industry has not yet been gifted with a Marvel massively multiplayer game, but Gazillion Entertainment is looking to remedy that as they ready Marvel Heroes for a closed beta.

http://www.gamesradar.com/marvel-heroes-mmo-closed-beta-coming-trailer-launched/

Though we don't have a ton of information about Marvel Heroes, early info suggests the gameplay will be reminiscent of Diablo as players work together to take down Dr. Doom and his assorted nefarious doings.It does not currently have a set release window.

Source : gamesradar[dot]com

Xbox 720 could get pushed back to 2014 says analyst

Wedbush Morgan video game industry analyst Michael Pachter was quoted today as saying he believes there's a chance the Xbox 720 may be pushed back into 2014, rather than launching in 2013 as previously assumed.

“We have heard no word yet from Microsoft or Sony about their plans to launch new consoles, but both manufacturers are widely expected to launch consoles by year-end 2013," Pachter said in an industry note. "Although, we believe that Microsoft could delay a new console launch until spring of 2014 in order to accommodate what is certain to be overwhelming demand among hardcore gamers.”

This is all , of course, with the caveat that Microsoft refuses to admit the so-called Xbox 720 even exists. Of course, Nintendo is guaranteed to launch in advance of both Sony and Microsoft, and the Xbox 360 is still quite popular. All of this gives Microsoft the opportunity to sit back, take their time, and observe where the market is moving before pulling the trigger on the new console. They certainly have the luxury of sitting on their hands until 2014. It's just a question of how long they want to let Nintendo have the market all to themselves.

Source : gamesradar[dot]com

FrightFest the 13th - Five of the Best

So FrightFest happened at the weekend, with the good, the bad and the ugly of the horror film industry descending on the Empire Cinema in London’s Leicester Square to shock and scare thousands of gore-hounds.

The weekend was a resounding success, but if you couldn’t make it down, the following are five of the best flicks that played (alongside the brilliant Sinister, which we previously reviewed here).

Sleep Tight

My favourite film of the festival, Sleep Tight is less an out-and-out horror and more a dark, psychological thriller in the tradition of Hitchcock’s very best. Luis Tosar delivers a grandstanding performance as Cesar, a quiet doorman working at an upscale Barcelona apartment. But below that unassuming surface, Cesar is something of a monster, creeping into his most beautiful tenant’s room at night and doing… well you’ll just have to watch the movie to find out, but rest assured it’s suitably sick and twisted.

V/H/S

Horror anthologies tend to be a mixed bag, and V/H/S is no different, though when it’s scary, it’s bloody terrifying. The wrap-around story finds a group of unpleasant pranksters breaking into a supposedly deserted house to retrieve a VHS tape, and while there they find footage that makes up the rest of the movie. The likes of Adam Wingard, Ti West and Joe Swanberg direct, and the film features the first chiller to tell its story purely through Skype. The undoubted highlight is a very novel twist on the devil worshipping sub-genre.

Berbarian Sound Studio

I’m not even going to pretend I understood this one, though while the vague plotting is frustrating, the bizarre sound and imagery stays with you long after the credits have rolled. Hunger Games star Toby Jones plays Gilderoy, a shy and retiring sound engineer invited to Italy to work on horror flick The Equestrian Vortex. But things turn strange as soon as he arrives at the titular sound studio, with life imitating art as the horror bleeds from the screen and into his life. As Gilderoy endeavours to retain his sanity, the film too starts to lose the plot, but it all looks beautiful, and as an homage to Italian Giallo, it's spot on.

Grabbers

So three serious choices, but what about something a little more light-hearted? Cockney’s vs. Zombies went down well with the FrightFest crowd, but for me Irish effort Grabbers narrowly edged the East End pensioners out. Playing like a cross between Tremors and Whisky Galore, the film stars Richard Coyle as a disillusioned Garda with a drink problem who is lazily seeing out his years in a sleepy coastal town. But when an alien invasion hits, Coyle’s character is forced to step up to the plate, no-more-so than when a scientist discovers that the aliens are allergic to humans with a high blood alcohol level. As ridiculous as it is entertaining, Grabbers is perfect midnight movie fare.

American Mary

Jen and Sylvia Soska – the directors of Dead Hooker in a Trunk – return with what may have been the most talked-about film at the festival. Ginger Snaps star Katherine Isabelle plays Mary Mason, a medical student who enters the shady underground world of body modification in search of a quick buck, and soon finds it taking a terrible toll on her own psyche. Brutal, gripping and genuinely horrifying, American Mary is the kind of film that FrightFest was created for, and should be sought out at the earliest opportunity.

Chris Tilly is the Entertainment Editor for IGN and is finding it hard to sleep after all that horror. His idle chit-chat can be found on both Twitter and MyIGN.

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Battlefield 3: Armored Kill release date revealed

The downloadable content packs for EA's Battlefield 3 have been some of the most highly anticipated pieces of entertainment in all of the gaming industry of the past year, clearly surpassing even most full games. But none have been awaited with such bated breath as the Armored Kill expansion.

Today we learned that Armored Kill is just around the corner with a staggered launch set to begin in just over a week. Thanks to Sony's slight exclusivity deal, Armored Kill will be landing on PS3 a week before the PC and 360 on September 4 for premium members. Then it will launch on September 11 for 360 and PC premium members. Following that, it will launch for PS3 general users on September 18, and PC and 360 general users on September 25.  

Armored Kill promises to bring Battlefield's historic strength (huge-scale vehicular combat) back to the forefront of the title, and the early hype looks absolutely amazing. 

Source : gamesradar[dot]com

PopCap, THQ and Funcom hit with layoffs

It's been a fairly dark day for the video game industry today as three major companies have announced layoffs affecting dozens of people. 

First it was revealed that layoffs have hit EA's PopCap casual gaming imprint with 50 employees reportedly (not official numbers yet) fired at the Seattle studio with the Dublin and Shanghai studios also being sized up for potential cuts as well. Specific numbers are not currently available. PopCap Co-founder John Vechey has posted a word about the layoffs on the PopCap website which can be viewed here.

Funcom, the developer behind The Secret World and Age of Conan also revealed layoffs today though they were not willing to reveal specifics. They have merely said that measures are being taken to reduce the operating cost of The Secret World using temporary layoffs and "other measures." Finally, THQ has also laid off about twenty people from its marketing department. 

The barrage of layoffs comes just days after OnLive was folded into a new corporation, leaving behind a huge amount of its original staff.

Source : gamesradar[dot]com

Why James Gunn Should Direct Guardians of the Galaxy

With every insider source, industry bigwig and nerdy blog suggesting that James Gunn is in the lasergun-blasting sights to direct Marvel Studio's next mega-movie franchise 'Guardians of the Galaxy', it's a fair presumption that many of you are questioning who he even is.

Ignore the erroneous and credibility-evaporating double whammy on his cinematic CV though (Scooby-Doo and - zoinks! - Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed), and there are more than enough reasons to start getting excited.

Remember - Kenneth Branagh, Jon Favreau and even Joss Whedon were controversial choices when they were picked. And look how nerdgasmically well they turned out.

For a film that could well prove the edgiest, weirdest and most fun Marvel movie adventure yet, we can't think of anyone better…..

Fanboys Understand Fanboys

The Guardians of the Galaxy have faced Blackbolt, the Phalanx, Blastaar and even Thanos (the purple scrotum-chinned one from The Avengers post-credits cameo), but their biggest challenge will be winning over the popcorn-munching masses.

So rather than spend time focusing on broadening their appeal, choosing a fanboy who's edged into the mainstream to lead the charge could cover all the bases.

Slither and Dawn of the Dead (which he directed and wrote respectively) tick both 'black comedy' and 'fantastical horror' boxes, Tromeo and Juliet and Lollipop Chainsaw show he knows a thing or two about subject matter that's weirdly, wonderfully nuts, and The Specials and Super prove his affection for (and ability to subtly mock) the superhero/comic genre.

Add to that the fact that he's long-time friends with Marvel uber-mascot Joss Whedon (one of Gunn's first ever jobs was co-writing a TV pilot for Whedon), and a long running, personal love affair with comic books, and it's fair to say that he's one of the few directors working today who can truly 'get' a tale involving psychic pooches, monosyllabic talking trees, killer anthropomorphic raccoons, and space-spanning tales of life, death and everything in between.

He'll Assemble the Right Cast

With The Avengers now sitting proudly above every Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Transformers and Pirates of the Caribbean as the third biggest movie ever made, Marvel's in the position to choose a cast of their dreams.

But the Guardians of the Galaxy have never been a team comprised of flashy A-Listers - their inherent appeal comes from the fact that while they may have universe-imploding powers, even a fraction of the die-hardiest comics fans could name them all without a quick flick through their Marvel Encyclopedia.

Seeing a Jolie/Pitt/Depp amidst the line-up would not only be distracting, it'd miss the whole point of the team (though we wouldn't mind seeing any of these picks in the Rocket Raccoon role).

Thankfully, Gunn has experience assembling indie stars with just the level of star power to entertain the fanboys and dazzle the newbies. From Ellen Page, Kevin Bacon, and Rainn Wilson in Super, to Elizabeth Banks and Nathan Fillion in Slither, Gunn's proven he knows how to straddle that line.

And while we know Nathan Fillion gets his name thrown into the fanboy hat at every new movie announcement (*internal monologue override* - BECAUSE HE'S AWESOME), we genuinely can't think of anyone better for Star-Lord - the sarcastic, witty and eternally out-of-his-depth everyman who's the heart of the team.

Throw in prior form with Gunn in Slither and Super, and the aforementioned relationship with Fillion-manwife Joss Whedon, and this is one time where we're actively hoping for a bit of nerdy nepotism.

He Has Prior With Genre Smorgasbords

Not since the Rom-Zom-Com has a movie so potentially screwed with Netflix's admin department. Part sci-fi, part space-opera, part-drama, part-horror and part-comedy, the latest Guardians of the Galaxy comic incarnation is a masterclass in deftly balanced storytelling - and the film looks to be following suit.

The concept art shows a version of the modern intergalactic gang ready to rock, and one guaranteed to hit some kaleidoscopic story beats. There's Drax the Destroyer (a very serious and ruthlessly vicious warrior), Groot (an  inadvertently comedic tree giant), Gamora ('as deadly as she is sexy' alien killer), Rocket Raccoon (Han Solo meets an Ewok by way of an enormous spacegun), and Star-Lord (a heroic albeit flawed, superpower-imbued human).

Not only will the right director have to juggle all those wildly differing personality types and group dynamics, but they'll have to introduce Marvel's entire galactic universe, along with a whole cast of practically unknown characters - and keep it relatable to audiences throughout.

Gunn seems perfect, having played with hyper-violence, black comedy and satirical superheroing in Super, and out-of-this-world ridiculousness and surprisingly affecting character drama in Slither and Dawn of the Dead.

He'll Take (Batsh*t-crazy) Risks

Whether you're a fan of his work or not, it's hard to deny Gunn is one to put his balls on the line in the name of a creative punt.

While many loved Super for its mad-as-a-bag-of-cats protagonist, and po-faced poke at Hollywood's genre darling, there were just as many who weren't too keen on a superhero flick boasting a mentally ill hero who brains perps into comas with a pipe wrench, or a sexually deranged sidekick who rapes her costumed mentor.

It's also a brave (some would say insane) man who steps up to remake one of the most beloved, iconic horror movies of all time, and while 2004's Dawn of the Dead wasn't perfect, it was far, far better than any could have expected.

And Lollipop Chainsaw? We can't see Shigeru Miyamoto following up his 252nd Mario with a game about a zombie-murdering, chainsaw-wielding, erotically suggestive cheerleader anytime soon.

While the quality and success of his work has been variable, there's been one constant - an unfailing drive to embrace nutso, creative risks in their gloriously deranged entirety.

And when you're talking about one of Marvel's most surreal teams ever, you need someone who's as uncompromising as they are a little crazy.

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